The Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM), an outcome of the G8 and G20 discussions on food security and agricultural growth, is a four year multi-donor partnership between the European Commission (EC), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Italian Development Cooperation (DGCS), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), NEPAD and the development partners.

Background

For the past years, many international institutions and organizations have placed considerable importance on Agricultural Risk Management (ARM). However bottlenecks in terms of lacking capacity, insufficient knowledge transfer between countries, and low take-up of innovation persist in the area of agricultural risk management. Several development institutions, NEPAD and local stakeholders have expressed the need for a support facility that fosters the exchange of knowledge and experience, and that assists the public and the private sector in developing countries in building a more structured approach towards agricultural risk management.

The discussions in the framework of the G8 and G20 have created a positive momentum around the questions of food security and agricultural risk management and the decision to establish a Platform on Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) was explicitly mentioned in both G8 and G20 communiqués. In this context, PARM was set up in December 2013 to support the development of a holistic risk management in agriculture and to facilitate knowledge exchange in this field.

Goal and Objectives

General

The overall objective of PARM is to contribute to sustainable agricultural growth, reduce food insecurity, and improve livelihoods of rural and poor farming households in developing countries.

Specific

The specific objective of PARM is to strengthen agricultural risk management (ARM) in developing countries, in a holistic manner and on a demand-driven basis by supporting partner countries in making ARM institutional component of agricultural policy.

ARM becomes an institutional component of agricultural policy in beneciary Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and interested Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and African Union (AU).